How making beer is similar to parenting

• You must learn to be patient

Homebrew: One thing I learned very quickly is that you have to be patient when making beer. Beer needs plenty of time to ferment and condition, otherwise it will be premature and will turn out bad. If you bottle the beer too soon you risk having too much pressure build up and the bottle exploding, or if you drink one too soon the beer will probably be too sweet.

Parenting: Just try surviving without patience. The last thing you want your kid to remember when he or she grows up is how you always yelled at them for not doing what you told them. Kids need to be taught how to act, and need to be reminded again and again until it becomes second nature. If you aren’t patient you will probably end up being one of those parents screaming at their kids at Wal-Mart, and no one likes them.

• It’s important to provide the right environment

Homebrew: If you want your beer to turn out right you need to keep it under fairly stable conditions while it ferments and conditions. A lot of brews have particular guidelines for how warm or cold the ingredients can get before it will go bad. An important example is at what temperature you add the yeast. If you can’t provide a stable, positive environment then most likely your beer won’t turn out right.

Parenting: Similar to when making beer, you need to provide the right environment for your child as well. If you don’t provide a positive, nurturing environment then your kid will probably spoil and you might as well forget about them and start over. That’s at least what do when you beer goes bad. Or you just provide a good environment so it doesn’t happen in the first place.

Check back tomorrow for two more reasons on how making beer is like parenting.

People who hear about BEER dad often tell me I choose a strange combination of topics when I say I write about beer and parenting.

I think there’s nothing wrong with these topics, because from what I have experienced homebrew is a lot like raising a child.

Granted, our baby isn’t even here yet, but preparing for him is a lot like making beer too. Plus, doing that right is already more than what most parents do.

How making beer is similar to parenting

• Preparation is important

Homebrew: Before you make beer you have to make sure everything is clean and sterilized. You need to make sure everything is ready, because once you begin you can’t stop. There are no do-overs if you forget something or make a mistake once you have started.

Parenting: If it’s your first child, or even not, you are going to have to make a lot of changes to get ready. You need to plan and prepare for when your baby arrives. If you don’t already have a crib, car seat, bottles, and such you will need to get all that before he comes. Everyone says it’s hard to get these things if the baby is already there, and you can’t go back and re-prepare if it’s too late.

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I tried some of my amber ale Thursday and Friday night and it’s still not ready. Waiting for beer is always the hardest part.

For now it has a bright orangish-red color, similar to the orange in the BEER dad logo above. I can tell it’s not ready because you can still taste the sugar when you drink it.

I am already convinced I will not like it as much as my last two beers, because I’m not a big fan of light beer. I don’t plan to let it go to waste either though. It should be done by Wednesday at the latest.

The wife and I brewed up a batch of homemade cream soda last night so we will be sampling some of that around the time my Amber Ale gets done.

Making homemade cream soda is very easy and doesn’t require a lot of time or ingredients, but if you are making a large enough batch it helps if you have brewing equipment.

We researched recipes and found you can easily make homemade cream soda using things you already have in your kitchen, but since my beer usually makes 6 gallons, we decided to buy ingredients so we could make plenty of our own.

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I noticed last night that my fermenter was done bubbling so me and BEER mom bottled the Amber Ale. It will be ready in a little over a week.

I rinsed and sterilized each of my bottles, which took about 30 minutes. Then we gave each one 1 tsp of corn sugar.

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